...Bethany Hamilton: Anything’s possible Bethany Hamilton is known for being a professional woman surfer who survived a shark attack on October 31, 2003 at age thirteen in Tunnels Beach Kauai, Hawaii. As a result, her left arm was bitten off by the shark at the shoulder. Bethany is the definition of determination. In her youth she pioneered to get women to be taken seriously as professional athletes. She has had to overcome many obstacles at such a young age such as the attack, rejection, and equal treatment. But these setbacks and sacrifices have led her to be victorious despite only losing one battle. She had a dream to be a professional surfer but it wasn’t as simple as that. Bethany Hamilton was born in Kauai, Hawaii into a family of surfers. At such a young age surfing was a big part of her life. At age eight she entered in a state-wide surf competition and won both the long board and short board divisions. Later, she was then the runner up at a national competition. Bethany had one dream, one goal in life, and it was to become a professional surfer. This all changed in the blink of an eye. At age 13 it was just like any other ordinary day when she went out into the water to do what she loved most, surf. Bethany was waiting for a wave when all of a sudden a shark bit her left arm and pulled her underwater. One shark was all it took to ruin her dream, but not for Bethany. After this brutal attack, Bethany was left with only one arm. She had to go through multiple surgeries...
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...Soul Surfer is an autobiography about the life of Bethany Hamilton. Residing in Hawaii and her parents being surfers, Bethany was drawn to the water and surfing. However, at age thirteen while surfing with her best friend, Bethany was severely attacked by a fourteen foot tiger shark which resulted in the loss of her left arm right under her shoulder. Throughout the attack and the aftermath of it, Bethany remained calm, hopeful, and maintained her faith in God. All of these attributes led Bethany to begin surfing again and become a successful professional surfer and inspiration to many people. Soul Surfer and Bethany Hamilton can serve as a worldwide inspiration to motivate people to keep persevering through life even under unfortunate...
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...Soul Surfer In the 1960s, the term “soul surfer” was used to describe a surfer who surfed for the pure pleasure of surfing. Though they may enter competitions, a soul surfer is more so motivated by a spiritual, compassionate, peaceful way of life. The movie, Soul Surfer is a film adaptation based on the 2004 autobiography Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on Board by American professional surfer, Bethany Hamilton. The main characters at the heart of the story are Bethany Hamilton who lives in Kauai, Hawaii with her parents Tom and Cheri, and two brothers, Noah and Timmy, who all happen to be surfers as well. But Bethany, along with her best friend, Alana Blanchard has a passion for the sport and work to become competitive professional surfers. Another character that plays a major role in Bethany’s life is her youth ministry leader, Sarah Hill. In the film, Bethany narrates and retells her story of how as young teenage girl, she lived and breathed surfing and being in the water and her dreams and goals of becoming a professional surfer. It’s an account of her life on how after losing her arm in a shark attack she had to adjust to life as a handicap and had to decide whether it was going to define her as handicap. Throughout the film, Bethany tries to find a way to recover her “soul” by looking to her Christian faiths and beliefs that somehow she felt were being tested. Media attention was brought to the family resulting of the shark attack...
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...Emilee McKnight Pd.8 The Strength of a Women Who is Bethany Hamilton?What obstacles did Bethany have to overcome? Bethany Hamilton is a professional surfer who got attacked by a shark when she was 13. The obstacles and challenges she had to overcome and face just to be how good she is at surfing right now was tough to do. She had to relearn how to surf all over again and figure out how to do daily things without her arm. She had a hard time learning how to do just daily things but she wasn't just dedicated to learning daily things but learning how to do what she loves and accomplishing her dream. Bethany Hamilton lives in Kauai Hawaii where she grew up. She loves surfing with her best friend Alana Blanchard. In 2003 her friend Alana her...
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...Don’t waste your time; Soul surfer is not just missing an arm! Bethany Hamilton, a 16 year old professional surfer, turned to religious faith after a fatal shark attack off the coast of Maui left her with one arm. So it’s easy to say the simplistic and effortless cinematic alteration of Hamilton’s painful and atrocious experience heavily leant on Christian teachings. However, the 2004 film execution of these hardships is inexcusable; consistently portraying a painless recovery with effortless answers in relation to love, retrieval and the nature of courage. The story of a hero has been condemned into another thoughtless movie by director Sean McNamara; just as we thought we had seen enough of the two star childish Bratz movie. The scenes of a misinterpretation of a true life story, keeps rolling in with ideas of a faultless lifestyle. Soul surfers ‘Tumblr like’ setting is some sort of dreamlike paradise where one can live in a beachfront house, go surfing on a daily basis, get home-schooled, be sponsored for rip curl and have a beachside Sunday mass get-together. Bethany’s lifestyle is portrayed without any physical life hardships. Real life footage of Bethany, accompanied by a voice over explaining her lifelong connection with the water, shortly transitions into the...
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...Katie Holmes Mrs. Foresee English 101 1.3 Film Review "Soul Surfer" is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton, a champion surfer who in her early teens was attacked by a shark and lost almost all of her left arm. One month later, she was back on a surfboard, has since won several championships and is at age 21 a professional surfer. All of those are remarkable facts. My problem with "Soul Surfer" is that it makes it look too simple. Bethany (Anna Sophia Rob) has a loving family of professional surfers and a big, friendly dog. She lives in walking distance of the beach. She was and is a committed churchgoer and got great support from her spiritual leaders. She was an indomitable optimist with a fierce competitive spirit. But there had to be more to it than that. I applaud her faith and spirit. I give her full credit for her determination. I realize she is a great athlete. But I feel something is missing. There had to be dark nights of the soul. Times of grief and rage. The temptation of nihilism. The lure of despair. Can a 13-year-old girl lose an arm and keep right on smiling? The flaw in the storytelling strategy of "Soul Surfer" is that it doesn't make Bethany easy to identify with. She's almost eerie in her optimism. Her religious faith is so unshaken, it feels taken for granted. The film feels more like an inspirational parable than a harrowing story of personal tragedy. Even its portrait of her recovery and rehabilitation is perfunctory. There's a particularly...
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...Movies and books have been made and written to share the hero's life stories all over the world. Bethany decided to write her own book about her experiences hoping to impact and help other people. According Bio.com, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board, an autobiography written by Bethany became a bestseller. MTV, ESPN, and the United States Sports Academy honored her for her courage in 2007. In the same year, the release of Heart of a Soul Surfer, a documentary about Bethany and her return to the water after the shark attack. Then in 2011, another documentary about Bethany came out, Soul Surfer. She also wrote a second book, Body and Soul: A Girl's Guide to a Fit, Fun and Fabulous Life and that...
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...“She had lost her left arm after an attack by a tiger shark when she was thirteen” (Connelly 3). She was told that she could never surf again. Hamilton didn't let her new risen disability get the best of her so she kept practicing. She is now internationally famous after the release of the movie soul surfer (Connelly 3). Everyone loved the fact that she never gave up and won the Explorer Women's division at the 2005 NSSA National Championships. Years later she still is pursuing her dream. Hamilton is now 26 and is still taking on big waves (Connelly 3). Bethany Hamilton is truly an inspiration to anyone and...
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...The film “Soul Surfer”, directed by Sean McNamara, illustrates the life of a teenage surfer after becoming an amputee due to a shark attack through an inspirational parable. The film inspires the non-disabled community while alienating the disabled community due to the simplistic undertone of a tragic event and the glossing over a crucial process for amputees; healing and recuperation. Although the film accurately illustrates the psychological effects and the acceptance of the amputation, the director prioritizes the audience’s emotional attachment to the moral lesson of the narrative by utilizing the “supercrip” stereotype. The “supercrip” stereotype leads society to objectify people with disabilities, due to the constant use of these inaccurate...
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...“Soul Surfer” is a true story that was written by a teenager Bethany Hamilton and coauthors who helped her Sheryl Berk and Rick Bundschuh. Bethany is a teenage surfer, who lives in Kauai, Hawaii. She learnt how to serf since she was a toddler. She lost her arm by shark attack, but she never lost hope to surf again. Her story of fighting the pains and obstacles to get back to the board and water changed the way I see the life. I became more optimistic. Reading her story taught me valuable lessons such as the spiritual girt can create miracles and everything happens to us is the best even if it looks bad. The first lesson I have learnt is that nothing is impossible as long as we have a strong passion and believe. They say nothing is impossible even the word itself says ‘I'm possible. Logically, it is difficult to keep the balance of the body during surfing. She fought and invented new techniques and special board that suit her needs to do what she always wanted. No one including doctors, family, friends, and surfers could imagine her getting back to the water and compete like she used to before the attack, but her determination to the suffering showed the whole world that body is no more essential to suffering because she has great power of spiritual girt. Her story reminds me of my grandmother. She decided to complete her high school education when she was 54 years old. I can’t deny the fact that all family members underestimated her ability to do so because she almost forgot...
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...Thin Air” and “Soul Surfer”all have characteristics of a survivor. There are three main similarities between Bethany Hamilton’s survivor traits and those of Captain Winter, Rudy, and the mountain trekkers. In spite of being attacked by a Great White Shark, Bethany remained calm and collected throughout all the chaos. Similarly, despite falling down and 20 foot crevice, Captain Winter remained calm. This is an emotional survival skill. To be calm is probably one of the most important trait someone can have. In the article “Boy and a Man” Captian Winter had to remain calm when he was freezing to death in a 20 foot crevice. He had no idea if someone or something would come and help him out. In the same way, Bethany Hamilton had to stay calm when a Great White Shark bite off the majority of her left arm. She was bleeding continuously and was...
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...Marlon Christopher T. Cadungog October 1, 2014 BSIT – 1B Ms. Jo Janine Nikkie I. Tuna English 1 Soul Surfer Soul Surfer is the inspiring true story of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack and courageously overcame all odds to become a champion again, inspiring millions worldwide through the love of her family, her sheer determination, and her unwavering faith in Jesus Christ. This essay will cover some questions and their answers through explanatory paragraphs. Compassion: Changing People’s Point of View Why does compassion change the way we view things? Let us first define it: It is the pity for suffering, with the desire to help or to spare. The definition itself explains the answer of the question. Compassion can be the natural instinct of a merciful individual who tends to help mostly those who are needy as of certain individuals - who are more likely Samaritans - being practiced. Compassion changes our viewpoint because of this, since it provides us the courage and will to change and to be open for new possibilities and opportunities, as Sarah told Bethany that it could move people to do great things and can also provide a new perspective. It could also be considered as a life changer, as it can greatly influence individuals that have gone through several trials and problems. It can also empower us to be prudent; being persistent enough to do good things with faith in God towards other people, especially our loved...
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...Adversity People deal with adversity throughout their entire lives. The way each individual's deal and overcome obstacles are different. People overcome adversity by learning how to live with it, developing a way how to fix it, or learning to move on with their lives. To begin, people overcome adversity by learning how to live with it. In the movie “Soul Surfer” Bethany Hamilton’s arm was bitten off by a shark. But she has to do so many task, making her life harder. Bethany had to learn to live with only having one arm. Everyday task and things that Bethany loved, like surfing would now by difficult. But Bethany couldn’t change the fact she had lost an arm. So Bethany tried and eventually learned to live with only having one arm. To conclude, Bethany Hamilton learned to live with the obstacle in her...
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...A sports figure that holds a true example of modern heroism is Bethany Hamilton. I chose Bethany Hamilton because of her inspiring story. According to the article “Soul Surfer” She lost her left arm because of a shark incident while resting in the cool water. Bethany says that “she watched in shock as the water around her turned bright red… her left arm was gone almost to the armpit, with a huge crescent-shaped chunk of her red, white, and blue surfboard.” However, she still continues to surf today and is a professional surfer. She is involved with foundations such as Life Without Limbs where she explains how to cope with having missing limbs. She is also involved with Surfaif International where she speaks about the importance about health cate and...
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...found through prosperity. He was able to find out important life skills through adversity to be better prepared for what he might encounter ahead of him. Surfer, Bethany Hamilton, has inspired many people by being able to overcome her handicap and greatly succeed in life. Born on the island of Kauai, she has surfed ever since she was eight years old. At the age of thirteen, she was attacked by a shark while surfing in the North Shore of Kauai and suffered the loss of an arm. Even though the attack had caused her to live her life a completely different way, she was able to place first in a women’s national surfing championship only one year after the attack. Since her attack, movies such as Soul Surfer have been made to tell the story of her life, she has written books, and publicly speaks to inspire people around the globe. The adversity in her life is the reason for her books, movies, and admiration from millions of people. In prosperity, she would have been able to achieve her goal of being a professional surfer, but she wouldn’t have gained the extra courage in her life, the reason to push her self for greater. The loss of an arm has caused her to live life completely different than a normal person, but has brought out qualities in herself that a normal person does not have. What Elie faced, what James faced, what Bethany faced, proves that all challenges can be faced. The challenges we face bring out a better self, a perfected form of us, and we use that to improve our lives...
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